This invention relates to the assembly of marble walls, and to the replacement of marble slabs for such installation.
Marble panels and walls have always been a desirable architectural and interior design feature. Conventionally, such marble panels are provided either by a solid marble slab which must be secured to a flat surface. A skilled artisan is required to handle the slab and to secure it to the flat surface without cracking or breaking the marble. Obviously, this is a time consuming and expensive process, and the damage to marble slabs which occurs is a very expensive problem.
One attempt to eliminate the need of such an assembly procedure has been to provide materials made of plastic which are marble look-alikes and which are assembled as squares on a wall surface. Obviously, such squares do not resemble a marble panel, and the undesirability of such squares as a replacement for natural marble is quite clear.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,846 entitled Marble-Faced Composite Surface Element discloses a composite marble panel formed of a thin marble layer attached to a honeycomb backing structure. This composite panel is difficult to assemble and also leaves unfinished edges.
An object of this invention is to provide a marble panel and assembly system which enables whole marble panels of the size of a natural marble slab to be installed without requiring skilled artisans.
Another object of this invention is to provide such an assembly system which is relatively foolproof, simple to use and easily adaptable to on-site installation.
Still another object of this invention is to improve the time and efficiency of installation of marble walls which materially can reduce the installation cost.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide such a system in which cracking and breaking of marble slabs is eliminated, yet in which marble walls are installed with the apparent thickness of marble slabs.
Another object of this invention is to provide a marble panel which only has a thin marble layer but which has substantially finished side edges.
Other objects, advantages and features of this invention will become more apparent from the following description.